Website Artwork

The website artwork is an acknowledgement to the great artists
throughout history whose work I have enjoyed and found enriching.

As I suggested in The
Arts
and Personal Development, art is a universal language that
transcends time and space. It can transport us to altered states
of consciousness just by our looking at it and allowing our
imaginations to take over.

It also shows his interest in proportion. According to
Encyclopedia Britannica, Leonardo believed the workings of the
human body to be an analogy for the universe.

Some believe that the square symbolizes material existence and
that the circle symbolizes spiritual existence, thus the depiction
by Leonardo of the correlation between the two.

Brilliant! I chose this work of Da Vinci's because I love what it
symbolizes and represents.

The Thinker by Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), the French
artist whose sculpture emphasized texture and the emotional state of
the subject.

Rodin's bronze statue of a man in sober contemplation is one of his
most famous works and sometimes used to represent Philosophy.

He is depicted in the nude because Rodin wanted his work to
represent poetry as well as intellect.

The Starry
Night by Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890) a Dutch post
Impressionist artist
who suffered from bouts of mental illness throughout his life.

During his stay in a mental hospital he produced some works which
were characterized by swirls. In 1971 after reading about Van
Gogh's life, Don McLean wrote the song Vincent (Starry Starry
Night).

In the 70s the Van Gogh museum played the song daily and
recently Josh Groban made it popular again on his best selling CD.

Icarus by Henri Matisse
(1869-1954) a French artist influenced by the post Impressionist
artists. Matisse was known for his mastery in a colorful, fluid and
beautiful style and he has been recognized as a leading figure in
modern art.

In Greek mythology Icarus, after being imprisoned with his father
Daedalus, escaped after his father created a set of wings for the
two of them. Tragically, he plunged to his death by falling into
the sea after flying too close to the sun (against his father's
advice) which melted the wax holding his artificial wings
together. The area of the sea where he fell was named the
Icarian Sea after him, while a nearby island became Icaria.

The next six pieces of artwork are all by Pablo Picasso
(1881-1973), a Spanish painter and sculptor whose work has been
categorized in many periods including his Blue, Rose, African and
Cuban influenced periods. He produced works in a variety of styles
in his lifetime including the neoclassical and surrealist styles.

Salvador Dali (1904-1989) was a
Spanish artist and one of the most important painters of the 20th
century.
His work was influenced by the Renaissance masters, but he was
known for his most unusual yet beautiful work in the surrealist
style. Dali said of his own work "...just because I don't
know the meaning of my art, does not mean it has no meaning..."

Apparition of The Face of Aphrodite, (right) the goddess
of love and beauty. Galatea of the Spheres - (left) Galatea was a sea nymph
in Greek mythology.

These three fun pieces are by Alfred Gockel (1952-
present) a German artist who has toured Europe and North America
and is well known for his bright, colorful, abstract and avante
garde compositions. His work, in which he strives for perfection,
is mesmerizing and inspiring.

These four beautiful pieces are by Wassily Kandinsky
(1866-1944), a Russian painter, printmaker and theorist credited
with painting the first modern abstract works. He taught at the
Bauhaus school of art and architecture in Germany from 1922 until
1933 when the Nazis closed it down.